Another day and another research exercise.
Today’s is from econsultancy for its 2010 online PR and social media report sponsored by bigmouthmedia.
Last year it found an industry grappling with issues of engagement, monitoring and measurement.
The research is the most exhaustive in the sector. Please consider completing the questionnaire.
The econsultancy Social Media and Online PR Report, sponsored by bigmouthmedia, published today, is the most exhaustive review of the industry undertaken in 2009. I received an early copy and contributed to the commentary.
The 70-page report lifts the lid on client-side and agency digital programmes. It tells a story of an industry experimenting with social media programmes (typically with no dedicated budget or a small budget) and grappling with the issues of engagement, monitoring and measurement.
The report is a must-read for anyone in the PR industry who aspires to remain in the PR industry. Here are some highlights:
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There’s a new sport in social media land: Seth bashing.
Seth Godin announced last week that Squidoo was launching a new service called Brands in Public.
The new service collates the conversations online around a brand onto a Squidoo “lens” (web page) and charges $400 per month to allow the brand to respond.
The service initially launched with pre-baked pages for major brands. Accusations of brandjacking followed and Squidoo backed down.
At best Brands in Public is a crude reputational tool. Time poor brands can comment on content from the blogosphere, Facebook and Twitter in a single place.
But instead best practice dictates that brands should be participating in conversations wherever they are taking place as part of a social media strategy. A direct response from a brand carries authority and remains a permanent contextualised record for search engines to find.
And as econsultancy said $400 per month buys a lot of social media monitoring tools.
Anyone else and this launch would almost certainly have been ignored. But Godin’s profile has driven attention.
Curiously Squidoo’s Brands in Public page hasn’t tracked all the negative conversations during the last week and I doubt that it will pick up this blog post.
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Chris Lake at econsultancy has posted a blog about QR codes, smart barcodes that bridge online and offline.
“The future for QR codes is very bright. In Japan they are widely used by companies and consumers, but in most other parts of the world there are a couple of things that need to happen before QR codes really take off.”
I’ve blogged about the potential of QR codes in the past but think its a topic worth revisiting.
econsultancy provides a four point guide to creating a personal QR code using KAYWA QR Code Generator. Here’s a QR code that I created with my personal information.
Search Google for a reader such as Neo Reader to snap and decode the QR code using your mobile phone.
We’ve been just completed a piece of planning work for a prospect and spotted the issue that Econsultancy calls social media succession planning in its Online PR and Social Media Trends briefing.
It’s an issue for any organisation where an individual is the face of the company in social networks. The risk to the business is the individual building up relationships with customers and then choosing to leave the organisation.
In the sector that we’ve been researching brands are represented on Twitter either by a corporate account or an individual, or in a few instances both.
Econsultancy recommends that a branded Twitter account combined with individual Twitter representatives is best way to mitigate risk.
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Social media is growing up. Econsultancy’s latest Online PR and Social Media Trends briefing outlines how the marketing community is engaging his with new channel.
Celebrities may have popularised social media sites such as Twitter but marketing folk have been quick to follow.
The report cites instances of how social media is being applied for qualitative research, track conversation around a brand, develop brand, drive sales, build relationships with journalists and manage customer relationships.
Econsultancy’s documents are always succinct but packed with insight. This report, like others before it, is a must read for anyone in a PR or marketing role.
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Econsultancy’s Chris Lake has spent three days brainstorming a new domain name. Its becoming increadingly difficult to create a new name that is available as a legal entity and that you can register online.
If its something that you’re looking to do have a look at Chris’ 25 point checklist. It covers off everything that you could possibily need to cover (and more).
What it doesn’t tell you is the name that he came up with after his deliberations, but I suspect we’ll find out in due course.
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